Energy Saving In Your Home

The first step in saving electricity is to understand how electricity is used
in your home. All household appliances are rated in watts or kilowatts.
South African households, on average, use electricity in the following ways:

Space heating and cooling: 18%
Lighting: 17%
Fridges and freezers: 8%
Cooking: 11%
Consumer electronics: 5%
Consumer electronics on standby mode: 15%
Geysers: 24%
Miscellaneous: 2%

Here are some handy tips for reducing energy around the house

In the Kitchen:

1) Use a kettle to boil water for cooking as it is quicker and uses less energy than a pot on the hob.
2) Always match the size of the pan with the size of the stove plate.
3) Use a microwave to cook as it is quicker and cheaper, 1 oven uses the same power as 18 microwaves.
4) Only fill kettle with the amount of water that you need.
5) Cut food into smaller sections before cooking to help it cook quicker.
6) Make your toast in a toaster, not under the grill.
7) Don't keep opening the oven door while you are cooking.
8) Always put a full load of washing in the washing machine and if the weather is good dry the clothes on the line outside.
9) If you have a stove with heavy solid plates that retain heat, switch off the plate a few minutes before removing the pot.
10) When you open your fridge door for more than a moment, it loses cold air. Cooling it down again will take a lot of electricity. So be quick and don't let all that cold air out.
11) Do not place hot food in the refrigerator or the deep freeze, rather allow it to cool outside first.

Lights:

In most homes, lighting accounts for around 17% - 20% of the electricity bill. A considerable amount of electricity can be saved by replacing your conventional tungsten bulbs with compact-florescent lamps (CFLs).
they are more expensive, but CFLs last 8 times longer.
Turn off the lights that you don't need on and use lighter lampshades as they wil make the most of the energy.
Fit lower wattage bulbs wherever possible and avoid leaving spot lights on for too long, as they use more electricity.

In the Lounge:

Switch the TV off when not in use, leaving it on standby mode uses up to 50% of the power the TV would use if it was actually on, the same goes for the Hi-Fi's and computers.
Rather use a gas heater or a temperature-controlled oil heater for space heating and switch of the heater if you leave the room.
Curtains help to retain the heat, so draw them early in the evening.

In the Bathroom:

Shower instead of running a bath, as a shower uses much less water and therefore, less hot water and less electricity.
Fit low-flow shower heads, this will not only save water, but electricity too.
A geyser blanket will insulate your geyser not allowing the heat to escape. To save even further, insulate the water pipes and turn the geyser's thermostat down to 60°C.
Fix any dripping taps, especially hot water taps.

Did you know?

Fossil Fuels

Example

Oil and natural gas were created from organisms that lived in the water and were buried under ocean or river sheath, pressure and bacteria combined to compress and "cook" the organic material under layers of silt. In most areas, a thick liquid called oil formed first, but in deeper, hot regions underground, the cooking process continued until natural gas was formed.

Did you know natural oil formation exists underground not as an underground pool, but as tiny droplets trapped inside the open spaces, called "pores," clinging to the rocks. This is what is called an oil reservoir . The "pores" and the oil droplets can be seen only through a microscope.

Oil droplets can squeeze through the tiny pores of underground rock on their own, pushed by the tremendous pressures from millions of tons of rock lying on the oil and from the earth's natural heat that builds up deep beneath the surface. The pressure comes in an oil reservoir and expands any gases that may be in the rock. The result is that when an oil well strikes an underground oil reservoir, the natural pressure is released . The pressure forces the oil through the rock and up the well to the surface. f there are fractures in the reservoir -- fractures are tiny cracks in the rock -- the oil squeezes into them. If the fractures run in the right direction toward the oil well, they can act as tiny underground "pipelines" through which oil flows to a well.

Coal formed from the dead remains of trees, ferns and other plants that lived 300 to 400 million years ago which resulted in different types of coal

Each type of coal burns differently and releases different types of emissions

Did you know that of all the coal types, Anthracite is the hardest coal and gives off the greatest amount of heat when it burns? It is ideal for heating up homes Apart from rail and road, coal can also be shipped by pipeline to an industrial user by mixing crushed coal with oil and water which is then called slurry.

Coal is also used in the beauty industry

Example The earlier mascara was made using petroleum jelly and coal Different household products, health products and fibres have coal or coal by-products as an active component.